Wells Fargo sells $12.25 billion in stock to repay TARP

Wells Fargo priced nearly 490 million shares at $25 each to raise billions of dollars to repay the government for funds it received through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The government still has Wells Fargo warrants, which are estimated to be worth roughly $723 million at auction, said Linus Wilson, an assistant finance professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

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Wells Fargo's profit expectation lifts bank stocks

Wells Fargo said it expects to report a $3 billion first-quarter profit. The outlook sparked a rally by bank stocks, but results from other financial institutions will test that budding optimism. Wells Fargo's surge in net income comes mostly from a recent increase in mortgage volume and its acquisition of Wachovia. "We have put a lot of their losses behind us when we closed the deal," Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Howard Atkins said. "We are now enjoying some of the benefits from their revenue."

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